A few years ago a group
of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured
their wives
that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. Well,
as such things go, one thing led to another. The sales meeting lasted longer
than anticipated.

Their flights were scheduled
to leave out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and they had to race pell mell
to
the airport. With tickets in hand, they barged through the terminal to catch
their flight back home. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one
of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display
of baskets of apples. Apples
flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking
back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed
boarding.
All but one. He paused, took a deep breath and experienced a twinge of compassion
for
the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go
on without him and told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at
their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned
to the terminal where the apples were all over the floor. He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl at the apple stand was totally blind! She was softly
crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time
helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her,
no one stopping or to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on
the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and
helped
set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them
had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When
he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here,
please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"

She nodded through her tears.

He continued on with, "I
hope
we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started
to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He
paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are
you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride,
and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with
that
question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you
for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people
cannot
tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to
His love, life and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk
and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture
and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to
day.

You are the apple of His
eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He
was doing
and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our
damaged fruit.